More tests

Does anybody know the effects of the disastrous Senate Bill 736, the bill that requires teachers to be evaluated on high-stakes tests and calls for, but doesn’t fund, merit pay? It is finally coming due.

We have had evaluations based on VAM scores, a complicated mathematical formula that ignores poverty.

The Department of Education admits that it is wrong more than a third of the time, and that teachers are being evaluated on kids they never taught. But the most insidious measure about to take effect is final exams for kindergartners.

That’s right, districts are going to have to spend substantial sums of money developing tests that cover every subject taught to 5-year-olds. This is what passes for a good idea in Tallahassee.

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Regarding the March 18 article, “One small home is now surrounded by a giant construction zone.” We are aware of the situation regarding the residence at 2915 Coconut Grove Drive. This is a condition that has been ongoing for more than a decade and that, unfortunately, we inherited from the previous two developers that were working on the site since the early 2000s, prior to our interest in it.